What We Don’t Know About Long Term Care – Is A Lot

Americans over 40 — in other words, us — are dangerously unaware of our likely need for long-term care when we age and woefully ignorant about the costs, according to a new poll of adults in midlife and beyond.

The telephone survey of 1,019 boomers over age 40 was conducted by theAssociated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Researchand financed by the non-profitSCAN Foundation, which supports research and other initiatives on aging and health care. It found that many older Americans had barely begun to think about their long-term care needs, nevermind put aside money to cover them. For example, nearly 31 percent of respondents said getting older was something they’d rather not think about.

Following are other highlights from the poll, along with advice available on Next Avenue to help you avoid falling short when the time comes.

Only 16 percent of those surveyed said they had done a great deal of planning for their long-term living assistance needs; two-thirds admitted they’d barely started preparing. Looking deeper, only 8 percent of respondents between age 40 and 54 — and just 30 percent of those over 65 — said they’d begun long-term care planning. In addition, just 47 percent said they had created an advance directive (or living will) to designate someone to make decisions for them in the event that they can’t.

The survey found that even many of us who have been caregivers for our own parents have taken no steps to prepare for the day our children may need to look after us. Fifty-three percent of people responding to the survey said they had provided care for a family member or close friend, yet only 24 percent said they thought it was very likely that they’d ever require ongoing living assistance themselves.

And while 77 percent said they were confident their spouse or partner would help them as they aged, if need be, only 46 percent said they were sure they could count on their children. Maybe that hesitancy reflects the fact that nearly 60 percent of respondents had not talked to loved ones about the possibility. That’s surprising, considering 95 percent who had been family caregivers say the role was fulfilling and 72 percent say it was stressful.

Almost half of respondents – 48 percent – said they thought “just about everyone” will need ongoing living assistance at some point, even if they never become seriously ill. The federal government estimates that 70 percent of American adults will require long-term care at some point after age 65, on average for at least three years.

In the survey, 58 percent of people over 40 guessed that living in a nursing home cost less than $6,000 a month, but nursing homes actually average $6,700 per month nationwide. Respondents’ estimates of assisted-living facility and home health aide costs were more encouraging: Only 31 percent underestimated the average monthly cost of the former ($3,000 to $4,000) and 14 percent underestimated the average monthly cost of the latter ($1,000 to $2,000).

Still, when it comes to long-term care savings, many of us have not faced reality. Only 33 percent of those surveyed said they doubted they’d have the financial resources to cover their care needs as they age, which makes sense when you consider that only about a third of respondents said they’d begun setting money aside. As for the rest of us, it’s time to take financial action.

Our knowledge of what’s covered by Medicare and Medicaid is also fairly remedial. For example, 44 percent thought Medicare, the national health insurance program for seniors, paid for care by home health aides; 37 percent thought the program covered nursing home fees. But Medicare does not cover nursing home costs and it covers home aides only in certain cases. As for Medicaid, the federal program for Americans with low or no income, only 39 percent of respondents thought they might ever need to rely on it to cover long-term living costs. The reality is that Medicaid pays the bulk of the nation’s long-term care costs, usually after people have spent their retirement savings. However, there is zero chance that Medicaid will have the funds to pay for the baby boomer’s LTC needs as they begin requesting assistance. For more information visit www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com

1 Comment

Reblogged this on longtermhealth and commented:
The most common reason why people ignore the significance of long-term care planning is denial, majority of Americans think that they will not need any long-term care services. Another reason is the increasing cost of long-term care insurance premiums, not realizing that they might be incurring large out-of pocket expenses for ltc services. Most of the times, those who seek long-term care think about the cost of care only when the need arises and at this point, it is already too late to purchase a long-term care insurance because it is either you will be declined, or the cost of premium will be too high.

If we think of relying on spouse or children or other family members to provide care for us, think again, would you want to be a burden to your loved ones? You will leave them stressed and devastated not only physically but also emotionally and financially because caregiving is an enormous task. In addition, you will be leaving them broke because the cost of long-term care services are too high that it can drain even an ample amount of savings.

Relying on medicaid and medicare is not wise because medicare does not necessarily cover long-term care, while with medicaid, you have to spend down all your assets to become eligible. It doesn’t even assure that we will get quality care when we need it and where we need it.